>> the first speech writer is considered to be justin wellver for warren harding. no surprise at all that the first speech writer comes as mass media comes on the scene and presidents have to speak much more. when calvin coolidge was president, he made speeches roughly eight times a month. kennedy, in his thousand days it was 19 times a month. clinton in his first time was 28 times a month. and i haven't seen any numbers for clinton's second term, w. bush or obama. you have to believe that time keeps going up. >> linda, we've been talking about interesting, but off the news things in a way. what's going on internationally? we say the president's chances are looking up domestically, or in some sort of rise. international, doesn't look so pretty does it? >> i think depends really where you look. afghanistan is still so problematic. there are some signs that things are happening there that are very sures. the afghan parliament turns out to be one of the major challenges in challenging its president, president karzai. there's a life in the parliament that says we're si